معرفی
Chika O. Okafor serves as Assistant Professor of Law at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law with dual courtesy appointments in the Department of Economics and Kellogg School of Management. A Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, he joined Northwestern in 2025 after a distinguished career spanning legal practice, economic policy, and social entrepreneurship.
His academic foundation includes:
- PhD in Economics from Harvard University
- JD from Yale Law School
- BA from Stanford University
Okafor's research pioneers interdisciplinary approaches to systemic societal challenges, integrating economic theory with empirical legal analysis. His scholarship critically examines how institutional frameworks and social networks perpetuate economic inequality, mass incarceration, and climate vulnerability. Specializing in constitutional law and climate/energy policy, he publishes in top-tier journals like the Journal of Law and Economics while contributing policy insights to major media outlets including the Boston Globe and Newsweek.
Prior to Northwestern, Okafor held significant leadership roles: Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (2024-2025), Academic Fellow in Law & Political Economy at Harvard Law School (2022-2024), management consultant at McKinsey & Company, corporate attorney at Skadden's London office, and founder of the K-12 social venture Todaydream®. His public service includes gun violence prevention with Chicago Public Schools, White House OIRA policy work, and human rights advocacy with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Through his Faculty Fellowship at Northwestern's Institute for Policy Research, Okafor actively bridges academic scholarship and real-world policy solutions, focusing on translating empirical legal-economic research into actionable frameworks for social reform.
